IDPs

Armed Conflict, Homonegativity and Forced Internal Displacement: Implications for HIV among Colombian Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals

Citation:

Zea, Maria Cecilia, Carol A. Reisen, Fernanda T. Bianchi, Felisa A. Gonzales, Fabián Betancourt, Marcela Aguilar, and Paul J. Poppen. 2013. “Armed Conflict, Homonegativity and Forced Internal Displacement: Implications for HIV among Colombian Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 15 (7): 788–803.

Authors: Maria Cecilia Zea, Carol A. Reisen, Fernanda T. Bianchi, Felisa A. Gonzales, Fabián Betancourt, Marcela Aguilar, Paul J. Poppen

Abstract:

Colombia has endured six decades of civil unrest, population displacement and violence. We examined the relationships between contextual conditions, displacement and HIV among gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in Bogotá, Colombia. A total of 19 key informants provided information about internal displacement of sexual minorities. Life-history interviews were conducted with 42 participants aged 18 to 48 years and included questions about displacement experiences, sexual behaviour, life prior to displacement and participants' economic and social situation in Bogotá. The interplay of a variety of factors – including internal conflict and violence, homonegativity and ‘social cleansing’, gender and sexual identity and poverty – strongly shaped the varied experiences of displacement. Migration, sexual violence, exchange sex and low rates of HIV testing were risk factors that increased vulnerability for HIV in this displaced sample. Although displacement and HIV in Colombia are major problems, both are understudied.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Health, HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ, Sexual Violence, Sexuality Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2013

The Prevalence of Sexual Violence among Female Refugees in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Citation:

Vu, Alexander, Atif Adam, Andrea Wirtz, Kiemanh Pham, Leonard Rubenstein, Nancy Glass, Chris Beyrer, and Sonal Singh. 2014. “The Prevalence of Sexual Violence among Female Refugees in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” PLoS Currents 6.

Authors: Alexander Vu, Atif Adam, Andrea Wirtz, Kiemanh Pham, Leonard Rubenstein, Nancy Glass, Chris Beyrer, Sonal Singh

Abstract:

Importance: Refugees and internally displaced persons are highly vulnerable to sexual violence during conflict and subsequent displacement. However, accurate estimates of the prevalence of sexual violence among in these populations remain uncertain.

Objective: Our objective was to estimate the prevalence of sexual violence among refugees and displaced persons in complex humanitarian emergencies.

Data Source: We conducted systematic review of relevant literature in multiple databases (EMBASE, CINAHL, and MEDLINE) through February 2013 to identify studies. We also reviewed reference lists of included articles to identify any missing sources. Study Selection: Inclusion criteria required identification of sexual violence among refugees and internally displaced persons or those displaced by conflict in complex humanitarian settings. Studies were excluded if they did not provide female sexual violence prevalence, or that included only single case reports, anecdotes, and those that focused on displacement associated with natural disasters. After a review of 1175 citations 19 unique studies were selected.

Data Extraction: Two reviewers worked independently to identify final selection and a third reviewer adjudicated any differences. Descriptive and quantitative information was extracted; prevalence estimates were synthesized. Heterogeneity was assessed using I2.

Main Outcomes: The main outcome of interest was sexual violence among female refugees and internally displaced persons in complex humanitarian settings.

Results: The prevalence of sexual violence was estimated at 21.4% (95% CI, 14.9-28.7; I2=98.3%), using a random effects model. Statistical heterogeneity was noted with studies using probability sampling designs reporting lower prevalence of sexual violence (21.0%, 95% CI, 13.2-30.1; I2=98.6%), compared to lower quality studies (21.7%, 95% CI, 11.5-34.2; I2=97.4%). We could not rule out the presence of publication bias.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that approximately one in five refugees or displaced women in complex humanitarian settings experienced sexual violence. However, this is likely an underestimation of the true prevalence given the multiple existing barriers associated with disclosure. The long-term health and social consequences of sexual violence for women and their families necessitate strategies to improve identification of survivors of sexual violence and increase prevention and response interventions in these complex settings.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Refugees, Gender, Women, Humanitarian Assistance, Sexual Violence

Year: 2014

Gender Analysis of the Impacts of Displacement on Western Sudanese Migrants in Khartoum State, Sudan

Citation:

Rahamtalla, Nawal Mohamed, and Awadalla Mohamed Saeed. 2009. “Gender Analysis of the Impacts of Displacement on Western Sudanese Migrants in Khartoum State, Sudan.” Ahfad Journal 26 (2): 15–46.

Authors: Nawal Mohamed Rahamtalla, Awadalla Mohamed Saeed

Abstract:

This study employed a gender analytical perspective to assess the socioeconomic impacts of displacement on Western Sudanese migrants in Khartoum State. It identified the different causes for migration and assessed the impact of population displacement on agricultural production in the rural areas of origin, and on the socio-economic conditions of the displaced families. Using a participatory approach, the study attempted to gauge the attitude of the displaced towards voluntary return to rural areas, and their perception of the requirements, that if provided would constitute an incentive for return. A random sample of households in camps for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) was selected for purposes of the study. Data collection involved use of structured interview schedules for obtaining relevant information. Data analysis revealed that the decision to migrate to Khartoum state was collective. Whole families were forced to leave their areas of origin because of the drought conditions which affected their rural areas of origin since the mid 1980s, and because of tribal conflicts over use of natural resources which later culminated into civil war. These forced migrants were mainly farmers and agro-pastoralists. Most of them have abandoned cultivation of their farmland, but some (mainly men) return seasonally to cultivate their land with the help of the remaining relatives or sharecroppers.. Most of the female heads of the displaced households were found to be landless. The living conditions of the displaced families in tile camps were found not to be better than the living conditions of the families before migration. Rather, the living expenses for the migrants in their urban destination areas have jumped up considerably relative to those in the rural areas of origin. Gender analysis revealed that tile migrants' tribal norm of placing the responsibility for household food security on women has persisted ill the migrant's urban displacement areas, and that women are bearing the bulk of life stresses in the IDPs' camps. Most of the interviewed IDPs have not benefited from the available education and health services; mainly because of the involved expenses. Young family members (especially those belonging to female-headed households) are forced not to go to school or to drop out in order to engage in trivial income-generating activities to supplement household incomes. Despite their poverty, most of the Western Sudanese migrant heads of households in the sample (especially women) expressed a desire for permanent residence in Khartoum state. A minority (mainly men) expressed a willingness to return in case of provision of incentives by the government, including establishment of peace and security, provision of subsidized health, education and water supply services, conservation of natural resources, and facilitation of access to financial capital for sustaining rural development activities.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Refugee/IDP Camps, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Gender Analysis, Households Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Sudan

Year: 2009

Caught between War and Its Aftermath: The Experience of Internally Displaced Women in Sudan

Citation:

Osman, Amira Awad. 2012. “Caught between War and Its Aftermath: The Experience of Internally Displaced Women in Sudan.” In Predicaments in the Horn of Africa: 10 Years of SIRC Conferences in Lund on the Horn of Africa, edited by Ulf Johansson Dahre, 397-408. Lund, Sweden: Media Tryck, Lund University.

Author: Amira Awad Osman

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Gender, Women Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Sudan

Year: 2012

Forced Displacement among Rural Women in Colombia

Citation:

Osorio Pérez, Flor Edilma. 2008. “Forced Displacement among Rural Women in Colombia.” Latin American Perspectives 35 (6): 29–40.

Author: Flor Edilma Osorio Pérez

Abstract:

Women are the main survivors in the Colombian conflict. Even in the most adverse circumstances they play a crucial role in their families' vital material and symbolic reconstruction. They are burdened with the pain of their losses, fear, family rupture, and righteous anger at seeing their bodies transformed into military targets. They reconstruct territories and identity referents while building multiple forms of resistance in the midst of sudden impoverishment and social exclusion. They take leading roles in their daily domestic and public spaces as they garner social recognition and self-esteem even while living at the limits of pain and uncertainty. As their memories interweave different times and places, pains and pleasures, these women rediscover their social networks and capabilities, the most important of which is the chance to provide a better life for their children.

Keywords: Colombia, forced displacement, resistance, armed conflict, reconstruction, social networks

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Households, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2008

Ethnic Conflict and Forced Displacement: Narratives of Azeri IDP and Refugee Women from the Nagorno-Karabakh War

Citation:

Najafizadeh, Mehrangiz. 2013. “Ethnic Conflict and Forced Displacement: Narratives of Azeri IDP and Refugee Women from the Nagorno-Karabakh War.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 14 (1): 161–83.

Author: Mehrangiz Najafizadeh

Abstract:

The region that now constitutes the Republic of Azerbaijan has witnessed a lengthy history of conflict between Azeris and ethnic Armenians living in Azerbaijan. This longstanding conflict has had severe consequences for Azerbaijan, and Azeri women have been especially affected as hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes and now live as refugees or as internally displaced persons (IDPs). In this article, I examine Armenian-Azeri ethnic conflict and the plight of Azeri IDP/refugee women both in social historical context and through fieldwork that I have been conducting in Azerbaijan. I first establish the broader sociopolitical context by providing a social historical overview of this ethnic conflict, including the Nagorno- Karabakh War, which began in the late 1980s and which has continued under cease-fire since 1994. I then elaborate the qualitative field research that I have been conducting in Azerbaijan to explore issues related to the forced migration of Azeri women who became displaced as a result of this ethnic conflict. Through compiling narratives and oral histories, I provide Azeri refugee and internally displaced women a "voice" and I capture, through their own thoughts and words, the essence of war and of living in displacement, the essence of the difficult and challenging life experiences that they confront and the ways in which they cope with displacement.

Keywords: Azerbaijan, women, refugees, oral history

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Refugees, Ethnicity, Gender, Women Regions: Asia, Central Asia, Europe, South Caucasus Countries: Azerbaijan

Year: 2013

The MOM Project: Delivering Maternal Health Services among Internally Displaced Populations in Eastern Burma

Citation:

Mullany, Luke C., Catherine I. Lee, Palae Paw, Eh Kalu Shwe Oo, Cynthia Maung, Heather Kuiper, Nicole Mansenior, Chris Beyrer, and Thomas J. Lee. 2008. “The MOM Project: Delivering Maternal Health Services among Internally Displaced Populations in Eastern Burma.” Reproductive Health Matters 16 (31): 44–56.

Authors: Luke C. Mullany, Catherine I. Lee, Palae Paw, Eh Kalu Shwe Oo, Cynthia Maung, Heather Kuiper, Nicole Mansenior, Chris Beyrer, Thomas J. Lee

Abstract:

Alternative strategies to increase access to reproductive health services among internally displaced populations are urgently needed. In eastern Burma, continuing conflict and lack of functioning health systems render the emphasis on facility-based delivery with skilled attendants unfeasible. Along the Thailand-Burma border, local organisations have implemented an innovative pilot, the Mobile Obstetric Maternal Health Workers (MOM) Project, establishing a three-tiered collaborative network of community-based reproductive health workers. Health workers from local organisations received practical training in basic emergency obstetric care plus blood transfusion, antenatal care and family planning at a central facility. After returning to their target communities inside Burma, these first-tier maternal health workers trained a second tier of local health workers and a third tier of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to provide a limited subset of these interventions, depending on their level of training. In this ongoing project, close communication between health workers and TBAs promotes acceptance and coverage of maternity services throughout the community. We describe the rationale, design and implementation of the project and a parallel monitoring plan for evaluation of the project. This innovative obstetric health care delivery strategy may serve as a model for the delivery of other essential health services in this population and for increasing access to care in other conflict settings.

Keywords: antenatal care, childbirth, emergency obstetric care, misoprostol, internal displacement, Burma

Topics: Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2008

Uprooted Lives: Gender, Violence and Displacement in Colombia

Citation:

Meertens, Donny, and Nora Segura-Escobar. 1996. “Uprooted Lives: Gender, Violence and Displacement in Colombia.” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 17 (2): 165–78.

Authors: Donny Meertens, Nora Segura-Escobar

Abstract:

During the last decade, more than 600,000 people have been forced to leave rural areas and migrate to regional urban centres in Colombia as a result of political violence in which guerrilla and paramilitary groups and the armed forces are the principal actors. The number of displaced people is still increasing. Nearly 60 per cent of them are women, and at least 25 per cent of the displaced households are headed by women, most of whom are widows. Focusing on three regions of the country - the northern Caribbean Coast, the central Middle Magdalena region and the Eastern Plains - the effects of forced displacement on women and men are analysed in terms of intra-household relationships, survival strategies and gender identities. The paper evaluates the gains and losses for women and men in the process of displacement. It argues that displacement has the strongest impact on women during the stage of “destruction”, while men, confronted with unemployment and loss of identity, are most affected during the stage of “reconstruction”.

Keywords: rural-urban migration, political violence, displacement, female-headed households, gender identity, Colombia

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Households, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 1996

Forced Displacement in Colombia: Public Policy, Gender and Initiatives for Reconstruction

Citation:

Meertens, Donny. 2003. “Forced Displacement in Colombia: Public Policy, Gender and Initiatives for Reconstruction.” Paper presented at Conference on African Migration in Comparative Perspective, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Author: Donny Meertens

Abstract:

In Colombia, one of the most dramatic social consequences of the armed conflict among guerrilla, paramilitary groups and the army during the last two decades has been the forced internal migration of about two million people who flee, mostly in a scattered way, from the countryside to urban areas, be it towns, cities or the national capital Bogotá. In the context of ongoing conflict, increasingly complex dynamics of war, regionalisation of motives and actors, and rapidly changing territorial configurations, the search for experiences of social reconstruction is not an easy task. Nevertheless, even in the midst of conflict, the affected population display initiatives that express resilience to violence, constitute acts of resistance or enhance new life projects, in spite of a general tendency to withdraw from public life, out of fear. Women play an important role in these initiatives. Gender relations and gender roles tend to change in the context of conflict, as women and men experience in a different way the traumas of war, the violations of their rights and the opportunities for rebuilding the social texture. In the following paragraphs we will develop a gender-sensitive analysis of the processes of uprooting, displacement and reconstruction of life projects by Colombian women and men.

Keywords: armed conflict, gender relations, gender roles, Colombia, displacement, social reconstruction, forced migration

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2003

Forced Displacement and Women's Security in Colombia

Citation:

Meertens, Donny. 2010. “Forced Displacement and Women's Security in Colombia.” Disasters 34 S2: S147-S164. 

Author: Donny Meertens

Abstract:

In the protracted Colombian conflict, assistance to internally displaced persons has developed in the context of contradictory political processes. The Colombian government's launching of a transitional justice process in the midst of armed conflict has generated a complex situation displaying both conflict and post-conflict characteristics. The progressive Constitutional Court rulings on internal displacement, in particular the gender-sensitive Auto 092, constitute an attempt to bring together humanitarian interventions and transitional justice measures in a rights-based framework. However, the national government is reluctant to adopt them fully and local realities still hamper their integrated implementation. Displaced women, therefore, remain in an especially vulnerable position. This paper argues that gender-sensitive humanitarian interventions must take into account all of these complexities of scale and political process in order to make legal frameworks more effective at the local level. In these contexts, interventions should pay particular attention to strategies that contribute to transforming pre-existing gender regimes.

Keywords: Colombia, humanitarian intervention, legal framework, transitional justice, IDPs, post-conflict, vulnerability

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Gender, Women, Governance, Constitutions, Humanitarian Assistance, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Human Rights, Security Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2010

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